


who needs soulmates, anyway?

by kbirb



Series: Soulmate AUs [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, soulmates name au, that's up to the reader to decide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-28
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-09 22:43:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5558351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kbirb/pseuds/kbirb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe never needed a soulmate and Finn never knew they existed. Or, a named-based soulmate AU with major spoilers for the new movie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	who needs soulmates, anyway?

**Author's Note:**

> Ah yes, yet another soulmate AU. This one is inspired by [this ask](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2034597) I got once on tumblr. It was the second Stormpilot AU I had built, but I found myself wanting to write this one.

Poe Dameron never had a soulmate.

When he was born, no name was etched on to his skin. His parents wept, for their baby boy would be without love. Growing up, they lamented about the lack of love he would have when he was grown, yet Poe never really minded. After all, you didn’t need a soulmate to know love. He loved his parents and his friends. He loved his droid, BB-8, and he loved flying ships. Poe knew love.

“Some species don’t even believe in soulmates,” he argued.

Not having a soulmate made life easier. You could mess around without guilt. If you needed to fuck a scavenger to get off a planet, you fucked that scavenger… and you didn’t need to go telling your soulmate about it. And when Poe became a Resistance Pilot (the best one, mind you), he could fly without many cares.

Of course, they say you don’t know what you’re missing out on until it hits you in the face. Or something like that. Because Poe didn’t know what it felt like to have a name branded onto your wrist, to know someone out there was made for you, until he met his soulmate.

Being the best pilot in the Resistance came with perks… but also some big difficulties. For instance, it’s not exactly fun holding the key to finding Luke Skywalker, handing it off to your loyal droid, being captured, having your mind read, and then having to escape in a Tie Fighter. Well, the last part was fun, but only because Poe had always dreamt of flying one.

The escape was surprising, to say the least, and Poe ended up with an unlikely friend: a Stormtrooper, deserting the First Order. Poe’s parents had always said he never really had his priorities in order, but this time he was pretty sure he did, having opted to escape first and ask questions later. Which is how he ended up discovering that A) his new friend had remarkable aim and B) he had a soulmate.

When he finally asked the Stormtrooper for a name, the soldier diligently reported back “FN-2187.” 

One thing that Poe valued was humanity and he couldn’t just go on calling this poor guy by some number. “How about I call you Finn?”

And that’s when it happened, a strange burning sensation on Poe’s wrist. He shrugged it off, assuming it was just from flying, and adjusted his grip on the controls in hopes to ease the feeling.

It was a bit of a surprise when he woke up hours later to discover a missing Stormtrooper and the name “Finn” burned into his wrist. “Oh boy,” he muttered to himself. “This will be fun.”

\---

Finn’s life had turned a bit upside down since he’d left the First Order. Afterall, suddenly he was working with the Resistance and surrounded by friends. He’d met Han Solo and watched him die, all within a few days. He’d even wielded a lightsaber.

Back when he was FN-2187, he was one of the best Stormtroopers on the force. Stormtroopers weren’t truly allowed to form friendships, or get to know each other well, but his squad were his friends. Nines, Zeroes, and Slip were the closest thing he had to call a family and the people he missed when he reflected back on his previous life. In fact, it was Slip’s death that changed everything for him.

Stormtroopers of the current era are stolen from families as babies and trained up to be ideal soldiers. They weren’t clones, but they were still programmed and brainwashed. You weren’t supposed to feel or love or care. It was your orders and objectives that got you through the daily grind. But Finn had felt too strongly when Slip died and it just shattered everything in his brain.

Feeling strongly was new to Finn, but he liked it. He liked the admiration he felt for Poe’s flying and the way that he could react when he was scared or worried. Holding hands, hugging, the way his heart skipped beats when Rey or Poe smiled at him.

The first thing Finn said when he woke up was “Where’s Rey?”’

Leia smiled at him. “She’s with Luke Skywalker, training to be a Jedi.”

Finn’s new life with the Resistance was good, but hard. It was easiest when Poe was around, as he always seemed to want to talk to Finn or be around him. They’d eat meals together and practice simulations, all with BB-8 in tow. Finn still had the pilot’s jacket, Poe favoring a new one that he’d picked up on his travels.

But when his friend wasn’t around, Finn found himself lonely. Not everyone truly trusted him yet, which he understood, but it made him lonely. That was an emotion he felt strongly but didn’t like. Leia seemed to like him and always made sure he was doing okay, but other than that, Finn found himself in his room alone most evenings.

It was one such evening when Poe came back from some mission or another. His check-in with Leia took longer than normal, so Finn retreated back to his room to just go to bed. It was a pleasant surprise when he heard a knock at the door.

\---

“General Organa, what if you’d lived your entire life thinking you had no soulmate, and suddenly there they just…. are?!” Poe hadn’t meant to say it, but it had been troubling him since the day he’d named Finn.

“Well,” she replied sadly. “I’d embrace it. Having someone to love so unconditionally is a lucky thing.” Poe hadn't considered how much Leia would still be hurting about Han when he'd stupidly opened his mouth. To lose the person you love most... well, Poe couldn't imagine it at all.

Which is how Poe found himself heading to Finn’s room after his debriefing. He’d gone over the mission with Leia and then talked about soulmates for longer than intended. In general, Poe found himself cool and collected, yet his hand was shaking as he knocked on his friend’s door.

Poe settled in naturally next to Finn on the bed, picking at a hole in his pants. Since approaching topics subtly just didn’t seem to be his thing today, he simply inquired “Finn, what do you know about soulmates?”

He felt Finn shift in shock next to him. “Uhm, well… I know that Stormtroopers, we don’t have them. You know, even though we’re stolen from our families, we’re taught that becoming soldiers is our destiny, the path that we have laid out for us.”

“So, no Stormtrooper has a soulmate.”

“Well, no. Not that we know of. I didn’t even learn about soulmates until I came to the Resistance base. Did you know General Organa has two names tattooed? Luke and Han. She once told me that soulmates aren’t always romantic, they’re just someone who completes you in some type of way.”

Poe found himself running his thumb over Finn’s name on his left wrist. “You’re telling me that you believe there’s no one out there who completes you?”

Finn sighed. “The thing is… we’re not really allowed to feel. It’s practically programmed out of us and we’re taught to shut down emotions as they rise up. These last few months have been strange for me, actually. So, I never really thought about having a soulmate. After all, I don’t have a mark. Did you know, we don’t get told what our marks mean? My friend Slip had one that said ‘Ariana’ on his arm. He only told me about it, and we never understood what it meant. It just wasn’t important for us to find out.”

“You don't have a mark?” Poe’s heart was slowly breaking. First, for his friend, who was taught that feelings were weakness. And then for himself - was it possible that a soulmate could be a one-sided thing?

Finn shook his head slowly. “Not that I’ve ever seen. That’s the other thing. I’ve never looked at myself in a mirror. We didn’t have them on the _Finalizer_ and I don’t have one in my room here. If we looked at ourselves too much, we ran the risk of seeing ourselves as something individual. Something different. Something human.”

Poe stood up and stretched. “Well, my friend, would you like to see yourself?”

\---

Finn followed Poe to his room, BB-8 playfully bumping into his legs every couple of seconds. Being around the pilot and the droid made Finn happiest, and knowing that someone found his feelings valid was even better. And, for the first time in his life, he was going to be able to see himself.

In Poe’s room, a mirror hung on the wall and Finn could see his entire self in it. He knew his face already, having caught glimpses of it in reflections of passing windows and the helmets of his friends back in the First Order. And it was the same with his body, although he’d never seen it with so little clothing on. As a Stormtrooper, he literally always wore the body glove of his armor, because you could be called to duty at the drop of a hat. Or simulated duty, more often than not. But now, at the Resistance base, he could wear what he wanted. They had soft pants to sleep in and shirts with shorter sleeves. It was liberating.

Finn examined the scars on his arms from fighting. How calloused his hands were, something he could see usually, but he examined in the mirror nonetheless. He wiggled his nose and laughed at the way his face changed… and then marvelled at his own smile.

Then, without thinking, he took off his shirt to look at himself better. There was a horrible scar where Kylo Ren’s lightsaber had cut into him, one of the blows that left him nearly dead not so long ago. His body wasn’t as muscular now that he wasn’t training and it was interesting to see that change instead of just feeling it. He was eager to join Resistance fighting, help Rey and General Organa and Poe out. But he knew he was lucky to even be alive now and was grateful that, for once in his life, he wasn't expected to fulfill a grand duty. 

He then carefully twisted around to try and get a look at his back, something he’d never imagined getting to see. Maybe there was something he was missing there. All he could see was the jagged scar, running down the right side of his back. Had it been the other side, Ren could have punctured his heart, and Finn would have died there. Instead, he was left nearly dead, incapacitated for months, slowly getting better and more ready for action again.

Poe was sitting very still on his bed, eyebrows raised. Finn stopped twisting to look at his back. “Poe, you okay?” he ventured.

“Uh, yeah, it’s just… You do have a soulmate, Finn.”

His heart skipped a beat. “I do? But…” He started craning to look everywhere on his body. “Where?”

Poe stood up slowly and came over to Finn. He touched the spot in between Finn’s shoulder blades. “It’s very small, you won’t be able to see it with all the twisting you’re doing. I just barely noticed it from where I was…. it could have been a birthmark but I know letters when I see them.”

Finn’s back was tingling where Poe had touched him. Actually, it was burning a bit, like the name was being seared further into his skin. “Well?” he asked. “What does it say?”

Poe bit his lip. “It’s my name.”  
\---

Poe could see his own name from across the room from Finn, even as he twisted about trying to see his own back. It was written in a messy scrawl, Poe’s own handwriting printed on Finn’s back. The scar that Ren had left on Finn's back had just nearly missed it. He wondered if Finn’s name was in his writing and decided he’d, eventually, have to ask his friend to write it out for him. His friend… What kind of soulmates were they, anyway? He felt strongly for the former Stormtrooper… But…

When he reached out to touch the mark, he felt his own mark burn hot. Was this what it was like, when you admitted the truth? His heart was beating wildly as he said “it’s my name” to Finn.

Poe couldn’t tell if the surprise that registered on Finn’s face was good or bad. He didn’t know what to say, or do, so he just backed away and sat back on his bed.

“So, uh…” Finn said.

“Yeah,” replied Poe. “Uh is right.”

“Do... do you have my name?”

“Since the moment I named you, burned right on to my wrist.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” Finn sounded a bit hurt, something Poe needed to fix immediately.

“No no no, it was just… I hadn’t had a soulmate my entire life. And then, well, you never said anything about my name and I was afraid that… well I was scared it was a one-sided deal. Plus, you seemed to like Rey. And we barely saw each other. I just… didn’t know.”

“Oh.”

“Oh.”

“Well, I guess it’s not a one-sided thing after all.” Finn was smiling a bit now.

Poe smiled back. “No, it’s definitely not.”

\---

Finn had never felt happier, knowing he could love someone and could be loved right back.

Poe had never been more worried to fly off on missions. He had a soulmate he was leaving behind.

**Author's Note:**

> I had to overcome major writer's block to write this, so it's not my best work! But [Sam](http://spravberrv.tumblr.com) liked it and her opinion matters to me. I am stupidly obsessed with Star Wars and I am not even sorry. The names of Finn's buddies are real and legit.


End file.
